Road Cycling Essentials

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FrenchTart said:
Are you taking primary? If it's a problem area I would make sure I'm in front of the cars if at all possible.
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Yeah I'm middle of the lane infront of any other traffic on the same road as myself, it's drivers going straight over this button roundabout and not giving way - the road I'm entering from isn't a busy one so they normally don't have to give way to traffic travelling on it. :rolleyes:

The route I'm taking is through residential estates and is not a direct through route for cars (as part of it is a cycle path). Due to the road layout in Hereford all of the traffic filters into 1 main road as there is only 1 main road bridge over the river. The route I take avoids this congested slow main road, goes through roads past housing estates and then cuts across a cycle path so I can take 'the old bridge' (which is single lane traffic lighted) over the river rather than the main road. The same/similar route by car would be much slower than taking the main road.

I'm now almost in one mind to take the main road (& bridge) and fight my way through a busy mile of stop-start/stationary traffic crossing the bridge. But avoiding this is one of the main reasons I'm cycling my commute! :mad:

Another option is some kind of light shining on my front left quarter so traffic is more aware of me, or I need a brighter (+ flashing?) front light than my 100 lumen handlebar mounted Volt100 and helmet mounted 100 lumen Macro Duo (on eco mode).

How do others here commuting in the dark mornings have their lights setup? I usually have my front handlebar flashing and my helmet light on constant. :confused:
 
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DIABLO said:
Why don't you switch to geared before you shag your knee completely :)
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I have a flat commute and I only use one gear on my geared bike unless I have a bit of a tailwind. I found I only used one either side for starting off or going a bit faster but mainly that middle one. I just reduced the gearing on my fixed to match whatever I was using.

Owen256 said:
Decided to change the height of my stem as was finding I was getting a slight neck pain after being on the bike for 2+ hours plus I now have the dreaded 'tiny bit of play when applying the front brake' ergh!

Any advice for completely removing the play in the headset? Done the usual of tightening the top cap first before the stem bolts but there is still a bit of play when applying the brake. The top cap bolt is one of those self expanding ones which I haven't had any experience of before, any tips??
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How did you raise the stem? Was it a flip stem job or move it up on the steerer? Something, either the stem or a spacer needs to be pressing on the top of the headset to hold it in. If you just slid the stem up a bit then there's nothing now applying pressure to the top of the headset and it will work loose. Likewise, the top of the steerer has to be at least 3-5mm down inside the stem otherwise the cap might bottom out and it won't load up the headset bearing.
 
Roady said:
Yeah I'm middle of the lane infront of any other traffic on the same road as myself, it's drivers going straight over this button roundabout and not giving way - the road I'm entering from isn't a busy one so they normally don't have to give way to traffic travelling on it. :rolleyes:
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I think, and I have no evidence to back this up, that a lot of drivers simply don't realise how fast some cyclists are. They think they have time to just nip out of a junction and then they take another look as they're moving out and boom, the cyclist is practically on top of them. If you asked the average car driver how fast they think a typical cyclist travels at I reckon they'd probably say somewhere in the 5-10 mph region.

Not that this in any way excuses car drivers.
 
Similar situation this morning Roady!

Took the lane as I came up to a small roundabout, nothing coming right so I carry on and then all of a sudden a car which was sitting on the first exit just zooms out and almost t-bones me.
 
Howdy all,

Long time no post....well 2 months!
First ride into work today after being taken out by a car at a mini roundabout back in October, jeese it was a bit difficult as i havent done jot since then!

Notice Rose are now listing the Xeon CDX (Hyds, Di2 version) on their website and its slightly less than i thought it was going to be, delivery would be mid April apparently....cant really find anything comparable for the price (£2500 ish).
Its more a sportive geometry but its not a million miles from my current Scott CR1 SL frame (same reach, 7mm more stack).
 
FishFluff said:
I think, and I have no evidence to back this up, that a lot of drivers simply don't realise how fast some cyclists are. They think they have time to just nip out of a junction and then they take another look as they're moving out and boom, the cyclist is practically on top of them. If you asked the average car driver how fast they think a typical cyclist travels at I reckon they'd probably say somewhere in the 5-10 mph region.

Not that this in any way excuses car drivers.
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I was going to post this. I think they look, see a cyclist, and then assume we're incredibly slow and think they have loads of time. They don't understand that we could easily be doing anywhere from 15 to 25 mph (35 mph if you're grudas) and are thus approaching at a significant fraction of the speed of the car that they would wait for.
 
InQ said:
Howdy all,

!

Notice Rose are now listing the Xeon CDX (Hyds, Di2 version) on their website and its slightly less than i thought it was going to be, delivery would be mid April apparently....cant really find anything comparable for the price (£2500 ish).
Its more a sportive geometry but its not a million miles from my current Scott CR1 SL frame (same reach, 7mm more stack).
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Lovely lovely bike and dripping in spec for the cash!
 
FishFluff said:
a lot of drivers simply don't realise how fast some cyclists are. They think they have time to just nip out of a junction and then they take another look as they're moving out and boom, the cyclist is practically on top of them.
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Vonhelmet said:
I think they look, see a cyclist, and then assume we're incredibly slow and think they have loads of time. They don't understand that we could easily be doing anywhere from 15 to 25 mph (35 mph if you're grudas) and are thus approaching at a significant fraction of the speed of the car that they would wait for.
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I totally agree with you both, but in this instance (and the one a few weeks ago when I was knocked off) are not due to speed, it's just drivers not looking/not seeing! :(

Dunks said:
Similar situation this morning Roady!

Took the lane as I came up to a small roundabout, nothing coming right so I carry on and then all of a sudden a car which was sitting on the first exit just zooms out and almost t-bones me.
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Exactly the same as me then mate and exactly the same as me being knocked off a few weeks back.

Previously I'd always been annoyed by cyclists with really bright lights - so bright they're like a car headlight. Now these couple of incidents are making me think I need to be one of them! :confused::eek:

InQ said:
Howdy all,

Long time no post....well 2 months!
First ride into work today after being taken out by a car at a mini roundabout back in October, jeese it was a bit difficult as i havent done jot since then!
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Welcome back fella! Coincidence you've appeared as that's exactly what we've been talking about! Did you intentionally take a long break from the bike or was it due to injuries/other reasons?
 
InQ said:
Howdy all,

Long time no post....well 2 months!
First ride into work today after being taken out by a car at a mini roundabout back in October, jeese it was a bit difficult as i havent done jot since then!

Notice Rose are now listing the Xeon CDX (Hyds, Di2 version) on their website and its slightly less than i thought it was going to be, delivery would be mid April apparently....cant really find anything comparable for the price (£2500 ish).
Its more a sportive geometry but its not a million miles from my current Scott CR1 SL frame (same reach, 7mm more stack).
Click to expand...

I read it as HY/RDs for a moment and almost went off on one about how much of a rip off that would be on a 2.5k bike :p
 
I'm going nuts trying to google a clear answer on this... Can anyone confirm whether or not the polar t31 coded transmitter is ant+ and therefore compatible with my Garmin edge 500? I'll settle for a confirmation alone, but bonus points for a picture of the ant+ logo on the casing ;)
 
ArmoVanBuuren said:
Yes received mine today too! Whats the general consensus for everyone for cancelling the subscription or have people just cancelled the DD? When do we need to cancel it by?
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I cancelled it the day after the first payment came out. Light arrived today.

You have 6 months to cancel it but why risk forgetting and giving them more money!:D
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'm going nuts trying to google a clear answer on this... Can anyone confirm whether or not the polar t31 coded transmitter is ant+ and therefore compatible with my Garmin edge 500? I'll settle for a confirmation alone, but bonus points for a picture of the ant+ logo on the casing ;)
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It really looks like it isn't after a quick Google.

1) Several people saying flat out no.

2) Some of the Polar support pages mention ~5ghz signal. Ant+ is 2.4ghz.

My conclusion would be that it uses old school analogue signalling.
 
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FrenchTart said:
It really looks like it isn't after a quick Google.

1) Several people saying flat out no.

2) Some of the Polar support pages mention ~5ghz signal. Ant+ is 2.4ghz.

My conclusion would be that it uses old school analogue signalling.
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No idea but Wireless N is 5 ghtz so I wouldn't expect a HR strap to be using that frequency (much too high power use!).

I bet would be it using early BT or something else.

EDIT: it uses 'Gymlink' whatever that is?

Either way, not ANT+ compatible :(
 
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Most Wifi, bluetooth and ANT+ are all on 2.4Ghz.

I'm pretty sure the T31 is not ANT+ but havnt found anywhere to comfirm that yet.
 
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